- I don’t know about you, but when I go to see an NCAA Division III men's basketball game in rural Vermont, I like to feel that I got my money’s worth. No blowouts, no lackluster games where either team fails to bring its best and bleed, sweat and brawl in the effort to win. Bearing that in mind, I have to say thank you to Skidmore and Southern Vermont, two D-III schools who just played the longest game in NCAA Division III history -- a seven-overtime marathon. In the end, Skidmore came out on top, 128-123. Not only was the game the longest in D-III history, it matched the longest NCAA men's game in any division and was two overtimes longer than the previous record at the D-III level. The co-holder of the record is a game between Cincinnati and Bradley on Dec. 21, 1981, a game won by Cincinnati. Skidmore definitely deserved the win, having made tying shots near the end of four different overtime periods. Leading the way for the Thoroughbreds was John Mantas, who scored 27 points. But the true iron man of this never-ending game was Southern Vermont's Lance Spratling, who played all 75 minutes. For once, I actually feel a tinge of sympathy for a college athlete who says that he or she is so tired and worn out the day after a game. Big ups to Spratling, Mantas and everyone else who was involved in this amazing affair………
- Know how I despise scientific research that explores blatantly obvious topics and conclusions that no one is actually disputing? I’m going to make an exception to that rule and that exception is for the filthiest, nastiest and most revolting habit in the world: smoking. We all know smoking kills a crapload of people every year and that smokers are the most disgusting, appalling humans walking this Earth. However, I welcome a new study by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare and Bloomberg Philanthropies which found that second-hand smoke kills more than 600,000 people worldwide every year. The study, published Friday in the British medical journal Lancet, is the first to examine the global impact of second-hand smoking. Researchers analyzed data from 2004 for 192 countries and found 40 percent of children and more than 30 percent of non-smoking men and women regularly breathe in second-hand smoke. Working outward from those figures, they then estimated that passive smoking causes about 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 deaths from lower respiratory disease, 36,900 deaths from asthma and 21,400 deaths from lung cancer a year. Take a moment, drink in the reality of those numbers and then read what the lead researcher on the study has to say. "This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco," said Armando Peruga, a program manager at the World Health Organization's Tobacco-Free Initiative, who led the study. Peruga then piled on by suggesting that the approximately 603,000 deaths from second-hand smoking should be added to the 5.1 million deaths that smoking itself causes every year. Most alarming among the studies findings were figures on the number of children who die of smoke-related respiratory infections, mostly in Southeast Asia and Africa - 165,000 per year. "The mix of infectious diseases and second-hand smoke is a deadly combination," Peruga said. Where is second-hand smoke worst? Not surprisingly, Peruga and colleagues found the highest numbers of people exposed to second-hand smoke are in Europe and Asia. Having spent a month in Europe recently, I can attest to the fact that an insanely high number of people smoke and it’s legal to do so just about anywhere. So not that we needed any further motivation to stamp out smoking around the globe, but this study should add fuel to that fire……….
- The deeds we do in this life echo in eternity……those words were spoken by Russell Crowe’s Maximus character in the film Gladiator, but they ring mighty true for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay, who in the previous chapter of his life was a scheming, conniving congressman, now finds himself convicted on charges of illegally funneling corporate money to help elect GOP candidates to the Texas Legislature. DeLay, who is retired from politics, was found guilty by a Texas jury on Wednesday
DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The amount he was accused of funneling wasn’t that impressive - $190,000 - but that cash to help elect Republicans to the state House and Senate in 2002 was enough for a conviction. At the outset of the trial, a defiant DeLay forecasted that the jury would clear him and his stance was unchanged by the verdict. "This is an abuse of power. It's a miscarriage of justice," DeLay fumed. "I still maintain that I am innocent, that the criminalization of politics undermines our very system, and I'm very disappointed in the outcome. But you know, it is what it is, and we will carry on and maybe we can get it before people who understand the law." It is what it is…..wow. That right there is the ultimate go-to cliché for athletes who can’t think of a credible or insightful answer to an interviewer’s question. His view was not shared by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who said the verdict showed no one was above the law. "This case is a message from the citizens of the state of Texas that the public officials they elect to represent them must do so honestly and ethically, and if not they'll be held accountable," Lehmberg said. DeLay now must wait a month for sentencing and when he returns to court for that hearing, he will face a possible maximum prison term of 99 years on the money laundering charge and 20 years on the conspiracy charge. I’m just thinking out loud here, but this is probably not what a man who helped Newt Gingrich spearhead the GOP revival in 1994 that won control of the House and Senate in the first midterm election under Democratic President Bill Clinton saw himself doing post-politics. Ironically, a man once nicknamed "The Hammer" for his strict enforcement of party discipline is now guilty of violating the very rules he was supposed to uphold. He was no stranger to discipline while a member of the House, having been admonished three times by the House ethics committee, which warned him to "temper" his future actions to comply with House rules. He stepped down as majority leader after his 2005 indictment on the money laundering and conspiracy charges and resigned from Congress the following year. From that point on, he did his best to string the case out and held it up on procedural grounds for several years. During that time, he found enough of an opening in his schedule to appear as a short-lived contestant on Dancing with the (D-List) Stars. I am sure his future neighbors on cell block E will enjoy seeing those dance moves in the exercise yard………
- Apple has absolutely hammered the stuffing out of the Beatles’ debut on its iTunes music service this week and the results have been great thus far. After the band and the tech giant settled their long-running legal battle over the Apple name, the Fab Four’s music debuted on iTunes one week ago and in one week alone, the band sold 1.42 million tracks in the U.S. and a further 119,000 digital albums according to Nielsen SoundScan. So now that fans have a chance to buy the Beatles’ music through iTunes, which songs are they purchasing the most? The Beatles' top-selling song download of the week is 1970’s "Let It Be," which moved 63,000 units. Second place went to 1969's "Here Comes the Sun" with 55,000. That ranks the songs at Nos. 26 and 29 on the Digital Songs chart, respectively. Overall, 11 Beatles songs cracked the 75-position chart. Not surprisingly, half of the Beatles' top 10 sellers -- including "Sun" -- were never released as commercially available singles. Of the top 10 sellers, six were also unavailable on the Beatles' greatest-hits collection "1." That album sold 11.7 million copies in the United States, making it the seventh-best-selling album since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. Which was the most-downloaded Beatles album of the week? That would be "Abbey Road," which moved 16,000 units and debuts at No. 8 on Top Digital Albums. Here is the entire top 10: 1) Let It Be - 63,000, 2) Here Comes the Sun - 55,000, 3)
In My Life - 45,000, 4)
Hey Jude - 38,000, 5)
Come Together, 6) No. 1
Yesterday - 35,000, 7)
Blackbird - 32,000, 8) Twist and Shout - 30,000, 9)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - 27,000 and 10)
With a Little Help From My Friends - 26,000………
- Want to use a cell phone, women of Lank, India? The answer is simple: get married. That’s your only option because the remote northern Indian village has banned unmarried women from using cell phones for fear they will arrange forbidden marriages that are often punished by death. Village officials are clearly not big fans of Beyonce’s Single Ladies or actual single ladies because they forbade unmarried females from using cell phones while allow unmarried males to use cell phones under parental supervision. Council member Satish Tyagi confirmed the new law and local women's rights group immediately decried the measure as backward and unfair. Tying cell phones with marriages between members of the same clan, which are forbidden under Hindu custom, might seem odd, but the reality is that in some parts of north India, these unions are traditionally arranged by families. This is especially true in conservative rural areas, where families sometimes dish out severe punishments, including so-called honor killings, for those who violate marriage taboos. Village councils have been known to not only condone but order the punishments even though police often intervene to stop them. Seeing the problem and asking what the best solution would be, the Lank village council decided to stop young men and women from secretly calling one another to arrange forbidden elopements. Before you dismiss their concerns entirely, there is the fact that last month, 34 couples eloped in Muzaffarnagar district, where Lank is located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Of those 34 couples, eight honor killings have been reported in the last month. "Three girls were beheaded by the male members of their family after they eloped with boys from their same clan,” said police assistant director general Brij Lal in the state capital of Lucknow. The Lank council ruling applies to around 50,000 people and is being considered by councils in the nearby villages. Don’t you just love being around to see it when a society actually regresses and slides back toward the Dark Ages………
No comments:
Post a Comment